Council tax rise should be ‘last resort’ - warns leader of Conservative group at Norfolk County Council

The leader of the main opposition group at Norfolk County Council has warned that it is “very premature” for councillors to consider a council tax rise next year.

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The prospect of a tax rise has been mooted by officials at County Hall as a way of plugging a £17.5m funding gap in 2015/16.

However, Tom Fitzpatrick, leader of the Conservative group, said rising the county council’s part of the precept should be the “last resort.”

He added that there would be more workshops as part of the council’s policy and resources committee over the coming weeks to find ways to meet the budget shortfall.

“We should be looking at all the options including generating income and making best use of our property and disposing of surplus property rather than looking at council tax. Most of the groups at the county council were elected on keeping it frozen,” he said.

Peter Timmins, interim director of finance at the county council, has suggested councillors should consider the increase in next February’s budget because of the pressures the authority is under.

George Nobbs, the Labour leader of the council said that members should not reject a council tax rise out of hand and urged them to keep an open mind.

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10 comments

Blaming the incinerator is an easy option but this does not account for the massive debt NCC have been accruing for years through decades of repeated bad governance does it?

Ingo-One person's "wastage" is another person's job and local government has lost around 4,000 jobs in Norfolk since 2010.There are now 2 people doing 3 peoples' jobs and if the cuts continue that will soon be down to one person.No wonder stress and bullying are rife in local government,on top of which is the fact that council workers have had their wages cut by 20% since 2010 too and this race to the bottom cannot continue.Norfolk needs a pay rise.

without those officers and cllrs. responsible for getting us into deep debt being held responsible, NCC has no case for asking to waste more money. Every of their actions regards the incineratror and Coltishall was undertaken with a democratic deficit, without mandate or support, as if local Government is wise and knows best. Consequetive administrrtions have shown that they cannot be trusted to keep legal documents safe and under wraps, that their candidates are not astute businessmen, but are prone to speculative wastefull spending of our money. Should we not consider boycotting the council tax until these points are addressed by the new chief executive, who sadly was not present at any of the last few full council meetings to see the lack of quality in our representatives and the downright hostility offered to us taxpayers. To offer no change and no action in order to remedy this wastage by NCC is not an option anymore.

We've been at the last resort stage for the past 4 years. A couple of modest increases by the Tories when they were in power would have been totally justified. Totally irresponsible to keep the level exactly the same between 2009 and 2013.

Before the Tory leader can offer advice of any description,he should apologise the people of Norfolk for the arrogant hubris of the previous Tory administration which has left us all with a bill for their political incompetence of £34 million.The little word "sorry" would go such a long way.

"Peter Timmins, interim director of finance at the county council, has suggested councillors should consider the increase in next February’s budget because of the pressures the authority is under"
Mr Timmins has 'form'.
Timmins was responsible for the report presented to council in October which said NCC would be bankrupt, public services on the brink of Armegedon, etc if they did not accept the revised project plan and continue with the incinerator contract. He failed to highlight that by May 14 we would owe another 5 million and be losing thousands every week.
Far from paying any heed whatsoever to his advice, Dr Thomson should put him on indefinite 'gardening leave, unpaid, pending the outcome of the purportedly 'independent' inquiry being conducted by Mr Revell